The first foundation stone for a solar energy station in Algeria was laid – on Monday, March 25, 2024 – as part of the 3,000 megawatt program, and the station is supervised by the Sonelgaz company. In light of this, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Mohamed Arkab, launched the solar energy project in Algeria. By laying the stone of the first station to generate electricity from the sun, in the state of Al-Mughayyir, south-eastern Algeria.

The Minister of Energy gave a signal to implement the project, which is scheduled to have a production capacity of 200 megawatts. The project came after a period of implementation of a solar station for the 2023 tenders of the Sonelgaz complex, which is scheduled to have a production capacity of about 3,000 megawatts. This comes within a national program that aims to achieve 15,000 megawatts of energy. Solar by 2035 through more than 40 states.

The importance of giving priorities to this type of renewable and clean energy sources was emphasized in order to cover the needs of the region directed to homes and the agricultural sector of the region, and the implementation of the station was launched in light of the interest of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to ensure the delivery of energy to all citizens.

The project is located on an area of 400 hectares, and the project implementation period has been set at about 14 months. The station includes 20 subfields, each of which produces 20 megawatts. It is expected that the first solar power station in Algeria will contain about 346 thousand solar panels and about 20 transformers and stations. A substation with a capacity of about 30 kilovolts, in addition to a group of other technical equipment such as a transformer station and a meteorological measuring station.

On March 14, Sonelgaz signed an agreement aiming to implement 20 solar energy stations. The first tender included the implementation of 15 stations with a total of 2,000 megawatts, ranging in capacity from 80 to 220 megawatts, distributed across 12 states.

The second tender contains 5 solar stations with a total of 1,000 megawatts, ranging in capacity from 50 to 300 megawatts, distributed across 5 states of the country. The minister stressed the need to take care and pay attention to power stations within the framework of providing quality services to citizens in the region.

An invitation was sent by Arkab to the Sonelgaz Group and its branches in distribution services to use hybrid cars to motivate citizens to use this type of car, and a signal was sent to start the project connecting to the natural gas network for the benefit of 324 homes in the form of public rent, and the length of the network is about 4.4 kilometers, as well as For the benefit of 150 dwellings, it is approximately 2.1 km long.

Gas-operated appliances must be monitored to avoid suffocation and poisoning resulting from gas leakage, in addition to the need for citizens to be sufficiently aware of how to deal with heating appliances, in addition to resorting to professionals to carry out such operations.